Canesta virtual keyboard
What if you could type from anywhere using any device? That was the premise of the Canesta virtual keyboard, a projection keyboard for portable gadgets. With the Canesta, you could use the standard full-size keyboard found on a laptop to overcome the inherent limitations of smaller mobile devices like PDAs and cell phones. It worked by using a sensor that would match hand and finger movements with the pattern displayed by the pattern projector.
Canesta’s keyboard got plenty of attention from the media but suffered from too many technical problems to reach mainstream crowds. Typing on the red projected letters and numbers just didn’t work so well. You also missed out on the tactile “click” of a proper keyboard and you couldn’t really use the keyboard without looking down at the keys. These sorts of things exist today but they certainly aren’t the “keyboard of the future” some were expecting.
